Channeling: A Non-pathological Possession and Dissociative Identity Experience or Something Else?
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Updated: Oct 30, 2025

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Luciano Pederzoli1, Patrizio Tressoldi2, Helané Wahbeh3
1EvanLab, Florence, Italy.
Abstract:
Channeling experiences are often compared with Dissociative Trance/Possession Disorders and Dissociative Identity Disorders and more recent diagnostic criteria presented in the DSM 5 and ICD-11. From this comparison, it emerges quite clearly that, for most cases, channeling can either be considered an exceptional non-ordinary mental experience or a non-pathological Dissociative Trance/Possession experience. If this characterization is valid, the next step is to understand the origin of channeling experiences. Are they an expression of channeler's unconscious or voluntary mental mechanisms, or real connections with "other discarnate entities"? Given their peculiar characteristics, channeling experiences offer a unique opportunity for a scientific investigation and in particular, the origin of the information received by the channelers.
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